56k Connection
by moonymonster
Summary: Rockman.EXE was surfing the web, minding his own business, when a sudden explosion threw him into...what the heck? A dialup connection? Well, now Rock knows why and who, and frankly, he'd rather not...will he actually live to go home? Time will tell...
1. Begin Download

**56k Connection**

**_Chapter One: Begin Download_**

Rockman.EXE glided though the Net, trying to figure out a very important problem.

"Maybe I should find something to give her…but a battlechip wouldn't give the right impressi—"

He never finished his sentence, for a giant fireball blasted him from his path and to his right. He wasn't even aware of his wailing scream as his body contorted from the pain. It was everywhere—all he could feel was that horrible _fire_, burning away every pixel in his body_—_

And then it stopped.

For a moment, Rock just laid…where? He seemed to be in another system. Slowly, carefully, he sat up…and stared. The system he was in was weird, unlike any system he had ever been in…_ever_. All he could see was a white, barely visible floor stretching on and on and on…the rest, where sky—or the Net version of sky—should be, there was just a blank white. Even though the place seemed to stretch in all directions for as far as the eye could see, Rock was starting to feel claustrophobic.

"Netto-kun…?" There was no response. Rock shivered, and tried again. "Netto-kun? Can you hear me? _Netto-kun!"_

But there was no response. 

"I—I'm alone here…" 

He had to find someone. This place was—horrible. It was nothing but blank. Nothing. 

Rock shook his head and tried to get a hold of himself. _Don't panic,_ he ordered to himself. _You just need to think. Don't panic—that won't help. Don't…_

Then he felt a pull. "What the—hey! Let go!" Slowly and very unwillingly, he was being dragged to the left. Then he stopped struggling, realizing this was probably his only way out of here. Anywhere—_anywhere—_was better than this place. 

It felt like he was being dragged though jelly, and thick jelly at that. He had no idea why he was going so slowly—it felt like he was being forced though the tiniest connection ever made…and he could feel himself being compacted.

"_No!_" he screamed, forcing himself to stay the same. "No! No! _No!"_

But it was useless. He felt himself getting smaller and smaller, but while this was happening the jelly was thinning—

"Only a few minutes more! Finally!" he heard a female voice cry from far away. Terrified, he tried to escape—but the jelly and the compaction wouldn't let him free. 

"Let me out of here!" he screamed, struggling harder. "Let me go! Netto-kun! _Netto-kun!"_

But he couldn't break out. Nothing seemed to work…but at least the compaction had stopped. _Rockman, snap out of it!_ he ordered himself. _Stop panicking, and start thinking. _Slowly, he got a hold on himself, panting slightly. _All right.__ I'm stuck in some sort of download, and it's too thick to break out…_

And really, there weren't many other options besides this one. If he _did_ manage to escape, he'd just be stuck in the White again.

And the White just scared him. He didn't want to go back to that place...it was that horrible feeling of _emptiness_ in it, as though he was an insignificant bug trapped in the middle of—

No. Don't think about that. Think about how after you reach this new system, you're going to fight your way out and go home to Netto-kun.

Rock began to swim forward though the jelly, grimacing slightly. This person was going to _pay_ when he got there. 

As he got closer to his destination, he could hear someone typing on a keyboard. Then the typist paused.

_"Fifteen kilobytes a second?!_Wow! It's never gone _that_ fast!"

…Fifteen kilobytes a second?

Rockman stopped swimming, shocked by the number. That was so incredibly slow…no wonder this place felt like jelly! He wondered if that was why he had been compacted too.

"Aw, man, I jinxed it. C'mon, c'mon, speed up again…!"

Rock wasn't sure what to do, so he just stayed put and allowed the download to pull him forward. The voice sighed, and the tapping started up again. 

"Aw, damn," the voice swore a moment later. "I can't think of anything more to write. God, this is boring. Oi. You know you're bored when you're too bored to write—hey! All right! Only twenty seconds to finished download!"

Rock braced himself, and formed the Rockbuster. Whoever was downloading him would probably want to keep him here, and that he just couldn't allow. He had to get home to Netto-kun!

"Five!" cheered the girl's voice, her excitement evident. "Four! … Three! … Two! … ONE!"

~~Download 'Rockman.EXE' complete

            Click 'OK' to continue

* * *

_Or you can click 'Review' to make me a happy girl! Thanks to all folk who review, and poo on those who don't, so there! _


	2. End Download

_ (please note: mild cussing is used in this story. It's limited to "hell" and such, so don't worry about your virgin ears…just know that you've been warned.)_

**56k Connection**

**_Chapter Two: End Download_**

Rockman was stranded in another strange system, though this one was a bit more friendly than the other. The "sky" was a pale blue, and the ground a dark purple. 

But just like the last system, there was no life whatsoever in here. He could barely even sense some files and programs being used—it was almost as empty as the White. He couldn't allow himself to put down his guard, though. He had to be ready to fight. He'd been in systems like this before, and there was always someone waiting.

######

"Finally!" cheered Alicia. "It took eleven hours, but that episode is MINE!"

Grinning wildly, she clicked "Open File" and settled back into her leather chair.

######

Rock was still warily wandering the system when a giant, grey door popped in front of him and sucked him into the space beyond. He didn't even get a chance to scream before he was on the other side.

######

"What…?" 

Alicia stared at her computer monitor.  The image on the screen was not the newly subbed episode of Sonic X that she'd waited eleven hours for, but a ten year old kid with green eyes and dressed in a bright blue armor of some sort. 

"Huh," she said to herself. "I've seen this guy before…I don't remember where…"

"Where am I?" the little figure snapped. "Where's Netto-kun?!"

"What? 'Netto-kun'?"

"Yes, Hikari Netto, my Operator."

Pause.

"….Where thehell did _this_ come from?" Alicia snarled at the computer screen. "That was supposed to be Sonic X! Not some weirdo virus!"

The figure actually looked affronted. "_Virus?__ **Me**?!_ I _destroy_ viruses, for goodness sake! How could you _call_ me one?"

"Good Lord! I think it actually heard me!"

"Of course I did. You're right in front of me, after all. And I'm a 'he', not an 'it.'"

"…My God. It _is_ listening to me," Alicia gasped, astounded. The figure gave her a glare. 

"…Um, he's listening to me. Er. You. Er."

The blue figure wasn't even paying attention. "I already asked you, _where's Netto-kun?!"_

"How should I know?"

"Because you're the one that took me!" 

"I didn't take you!"

"Then how did I get here?!"

"How the hell should I know? Ask your precious Netto-kun!"

_"I would if I knew where he was!"_

"Well then _why don't you find him!?"_

For a moment the two glared at each other. Then the boy seemed to melt.

"I…I can't…." he said softly, looking down at his blue gloved hands. "I tried."

 Even though the figure was just a computer program—that's all he could be, after all—Alicia felt bad for him.

"Um…I'm sorry I can't help you find your friend."

"You could if you wanted to!" snapped the boy, losing his patience again. "You're just playing dumb! Just tell me where he is!"

"How the hell should I know?! I just told you I don't even know who this guy is! ARGH! Stupid, stupid, stupid computer virus thingy!"

"_'Computer virus thingy'?!_ I'm not a thingy, and I'm definitely not a virus!"

"You're impossible, that's what—holy cra…I'm arguing with a computer program. I'm arguing with a bloody _computer program._ What the hell is wrong with me?!"

"I'm not a computer program. I'm a Net Navi."

"….Net Navi?" That sounded vaguely familiar too. She'd read it in the chatrooms somewhere earlier. Now she was starting to wish she actually participated in those chats instead of just grabbing what she wanted and going—maybe she'd know more about what this weird game was…

Wait a minute!

"Hey, I can call Roadrunner!" she cheered, her face brightening immediately. "He's into this Navi stuff. I bet he'll flip once he sees _you._ I'll call him and tell him to come over, his mom won't mind."

She grinned, and moved the cursor over to a little icon on the bottom right hand side of the taskbar. Right-clicking on the image of the two connected computers, she disconnected from the web, and began to look for a phone.

#####

Rock felt a strange, horrible feeling in the middle of his chest as soon as the little icon disappeared and a large "Connect" menu popped up. It was like nothing he'd ever felt before—like he was…trapped. Like there was…nothing attached to him, nothing leading him back to the Net…

Panicking, he tried to go back through the connection and back to the White. If nothing else, it would prove he wasn't—

—trapped inside the computer with no access to the Net at all, disconnected from everyone, with a horrible feeling of emptiness in him, just as bad as the emptiness of the White that he'd endured before—

"Yeah, Road, it's really weir—hey, blue guy. Are you all right?" 

Rockman looked up, and realized he'd actually fallen to his knees, clutching his chest. "Something's…wrong…I can't…I can't do…I can't go…"

"Road, the program—er, the Navi's—having a heart attack or something. I think it's 'cause I disconnected from the Net. I've gotta go, he actually looks like he's in pain. Yeah, I just said pain, yeah, I just said blue guy, _yeah,_ I just said Navi—listen, I think he's about to puke, can we continue this after you get here? _Bye!"_ She hung up the phone, rolling her eyes. "Geez…Hey, don't you throw up in my computer! I don't care if you're just a program, that's just plain old gross!" 

The girl ran to the computer, and clicked the "Connect" option in the menu. Instantly the computer began to make funny sounds, and Rockman could feel tendrils of the web try to connect with the computer itself. Eagerly he helped it along, and in a few seconds was panting in relief. 

"That was…terrible…" he whispered, hugging himself for a moment, then letting go to stare at his hands once again. "This whole place is _horrible!_ If it's not empty, it's slow, and if it's not slow, it's not there at all—" the Navi shivered, and hoped he'd never have to go through that ordeal again. 

"I'm sorry about that, blue guy," the girl apologized. "I have a dialup connection, so I had to disconnect from the Net to talk to Roadrunner. Another wonderful thing about dialups. Ain't they great?"

"…A dialup? Using the phoneline to connect to the Net? But that's…archaic! No one's used that kind since…"

"Since now?" the girl said dryly, settling back into her chair. "Well, if you don't mind, I'm going to read some fanfiction or something while I wait for Roadrunner. From the sound of it, he'll be here in five minutes, but even Hyper-Boy takes a _little_ bit of time to get here." 

Rock watched as the girl moved an oval-shaped device connected to the computer by a cord. A white arrow corresponded with the movement, and Rockman realized that the device controlled the movement of the arrow.

"What is that?" he asked, curious. 

"'S called a mouse, techno boy," she said indifferently, clicking on another icon, this one a large, blue 'e'. "And the arrow's a cursor. You're some sort of computer thing—don't you know this stuff?"  
            "I told you," Rockman grumbled, moving out of the way as a large window appeared, "This is ancient history to me…" Then his words hit him in full force.

"No way," he gasped. "There's…that's impossible!" Fast as lightning he checked the time, date and year—

"The year is 2004?"

"Um…yeah…last time I checked, anyway…Aw, crap, you like you're about to throw up again. Don't you dare, you little Navy thing—I connected you to the Net so you wouldn't, so—oh, Lord, calm down!"

She was right. He had to calm down. It was perfectly normal to be thrown back thirty years or so in time, though. Yep. Perfectly normal…

Before he knew it, he had passed out.

#####

"Oh, crap…" Alicia stared at the crumpled figure, totally unsure of what to do. One minute the boy'd been freaking out about the year, next he was out cold. 

Great. Just great.

_Now _what was she supposed to do?

Fortunately, a ringing on the doorbell saved her the trouble of thinking. She walked over to the front door and yanked it open, nearly getting bowled over by a hyperactive, red-haired teenager in the process.

"Watch where you're going, Roadrunner!" she grumbled, and went back to her bedroom, where said teenager was staring at the screen.

"Why's he lying down?" the boy asked, frowning. Alicia shrugged.

"He found out what year it is and fainted. Don't ask me why. You're the Navi freak." she paused. "Why did they name these guys after that annoying fairy, anyway?"

"They didn't name them after her," he answered absentmindedly as he tapped the screen. The figure stirred in response, surprising the boy even more. Alicia rolled her eyes.

"Don't look so amazed, Roadrunner. He talks, walks, and argues like hell. Well, I'm not sure if he walks, but I'm pretty sure he does. He stands up and…"

"Shhh! He's moving! Hey, are you awake?"

"…am…now…" mumbled the little figure, making her friend's eyes widen. 

"That's so awesome! Hey, look, he's moving again! _Sugoi! _Awesome!" 

Alicia blinked, and realized that the Navi had stood up and regained his composure. 

"I am Rockman," he said formally, bowing at the boy. Alicia raised an eyebrow—he hadn't been _nearly_ so polite to her!—but didn't bother to argue about it. 

"I'm Andy," the boy answered. Then he processed what the Navi had just said.

"R-Rockman?! No way! _Sugoi!"_

"Yeah, we get the bloody point, sugoi, sugoi," she grumbled. "Why do you have to use all that random Japanese? You laugh at the Asian folk when _they_ use random English—don't you think they do the same thing?"

"Yeah, but I use it where it makes sense…Anyway, that doesn't matter. What we have here is a kick-ass program! Where did you find it? How'd you get it? Who'd you download it from?"  
            "In order: Don't know, don't know, and don't know. Was trying to get the new episode of Sonic X, and instead I get this Rockman guy."

"…damn. Maybe you could burn the program for me?"  
            "You're not burning anyone!" the boy snapped, forming some sort of gun on his right hand. "I get enough of _that_ from Burnerman."

"I don't think I can, anyway," said Alicia, ignoring the little Navi's outburst. "Look at this." She pulled up the control panel and went to the menu that showed where all the programs were kept and how much space they took.

"Look, here's his file, Rockman.EXE—size, two gigabytes." 

Then the information processed in her brain.

 "TWO GIGABYTES?!" she gasped, making Rockman flinch. "I don't have a single PROGRAM that has that much in one place! …well, at least I have a massive hard drive to store him in…not that I want him in there!"

"I don't want to be here either," Rockman grumbled. "I want to go home!"

"Oh, Lord! Go! Shoo! I'm not gonna—"

"Rockman.EXE, huh?" said Andy to himself, ignoring the two kids going at it so willingly. "They really went all out to make this program. I know I would have heard about it beforehand. There's no way this could have come out so quietly…and why would it come to Alicia? She's barely even _heard_ of EXE. She honestly thought Navi was that fairy in Zelda. So…"

Andy turned over to the arguing pair and pulled them apart—well, pushed Alicia away from the screen and put himself in between their view.

"Take a break for a minute, will you? I want to ask Rock something."

"Be my guest," grumbled Alicia. "He seems to like _you_. The fact he invaded _my_ computer doesn't mean he has to be nice to _me,_ of course—"

"Just stop it, Ali."

"Oh, shut up, Roadrunner."

Rockman gave them an odd look. "Does she fight with everyone like this?"

"Pretty much."

"You can talk about me as though I'm here, you know," the girl grumbled, but motioned Andy to continue.

"Okay...I know you're going to say I'm nuts and an otaku besides, but I think this might be the actual, real Rockman, and no game or computer program."

Pause.

"You're right. You're nuts," said Alicia flatly, but Rockman nodded.

 "I was going to visit Roll-chan—" a slight blush appeared, making Alicia wonder what their relationship was— "and then this explosion sent me flying into…" the blue navi shuddered. "It was this horrible system…it was so empty…" he shook his head and continued, pointing at Alicia. "Then her download pulled me into her system, and I've been stuck here ever since."

For a moment, no one said anything.

"…Sounds like a bad fanfic," Alicia grumbled. "Any day now Mary Sue'll walk along and pull Rockman off his feet."

"Oh, stop being sarcastic. You know this isn't a fanfic."

Rockman looked confused. " 'Fanfic'?"

"Don't ask," said Alicia and Andy at the same time. Alicia rolled her eyes.

"Well, since we've decided we're not somehow trapped in some twisted author's imagination—" Here Andy snorted and Rockman looked pained— "We've gotta figure out how to get Rockman home."

######

He smiled slightly, his pointed teeth glinting in the light.

"Shademan-sama…he has been trapped in the past, as you ordered. Hikari Netto and Rockman are threats to us no more."

"No," answered Shademan to the navi kneeling at his feet. "Rockman is still a threat. You must delete him."

The navi's orange eyes widened slightly as he took in a ragged breath. "Sh-Shademan-sama, he has deleted so may others…"

"Do you doubt my judgment?" Shademan murmured, his voice silky-soft and very, very dangerous.

"N-no, Shademan-sama! N-never!"

"Then you know what to do."

The navi's eyes clouded over. "Yes, Shademan-sama," he whispered, and prepared to download himself into the Hikari mainframe and then into the past.

"Timeman."

"Y-yes, my lord?"

"Take this."

Shademan threw a Dark Chip to Timeman, whose face lit up as soon as he caught it.

"Thank you, Shademan-sama! Thank you!"

And with that, the clock-shaped navi disappeared.

~~T1Me_2_D1E wants to send "Timeman.EXE"

                        Click "OK" to accept

***

_Or you guys can once again click "Review" to tell me how much you love/hate my story! _

_Thanks to **DarkJC, Bobcat Moran, exe-sami, KingKazul400, Song the Allmighty Pineabble **(as she's currently called) and **Manguy** for reviewing—and all future reviewers *wink*._

_Also, I just wanted to let y'all know that I was joking. I use random Japanese all the time, so I was poking fun at myself, too. (Who else could I poke fun of? I'm the only person in the world I can't insult…)_

_I hope I didn't come across as too much of a hypocrite. As for the fanfic crack, well…I couldn't resist. I not only have a twisted imagination, but I have a twisted sense of humor._

_And of this date I've watched up to Axess 11, and if the plot of Axess dramatically changes for the worse or better in 12 and up this story is staying the same. Why? Because…um…because. _

_Please review!_


	3. Virus Detected

****

**56k Connection**

**_Chapter Three: Virus Detected_**

****

Timeman paused for a moment, savoring his victory. Hikari Netto was in a panic, and Rockman was trapped in the past...

…But Shademan-sama wanted Rockman deleted. And Timeman could not disobey his master if he wanted to live.

Timeman sighed, opened a link, and went through. He would have to face the Destroyer now…hopefully, without his Operator to supply battlechips and no Navis around to merge with him, the blue pest would finally be deleted.

Of course he would. Timeman had the Dark Chip.

Timeman had the ultimate advantage. Nothing would go wrong. Nothing.

The clock shaped Navi with orange eyes and yellow hands traveled on.

######

"Well, we could try sending Rock back to—what did you call it, Rock? The White?—and see if he could find a link home from there..."

Rockman shuddered. "No, Andy…when I was trapped there, I tried to go home, but I couldn't. There was…nothing there…" Rockman's eyes became vacant, and he shuddered once again.

"Don't worry, Blue Guy. We won't send you back there." said Alicia.

"…'Blue Guy?'"

"Don't worry about it," said Andy, hiding a smile. "She only nicknames people she likes. She calls me Roadrunner because…um…"

"Because you're a hyper psychopath. Anyway, even if he wanted to go back he couldn't. It takes me eleven hours to get a hundred and seventy-five_ megabytes_ into my computer, and that's if someone with a cable connection is sending stuff to me. He would take—months!"

"Good point. I keep forgetting how crappy your connection is."

"I wish I could too."

"So what can we do?" asked Rockman, the optimism in his voice fast fading. "I can't go back, and I can't go forward…"

"Hey, do you think the folks in the chatrooms could help?"

Alicia snorted. "Roadrunner, that's just dumb. I mean, who would believe that Rockman, a main character in like five bazillion games and an anime to boot, would randomly pop up into someone's computer? Hell, how would they even _deal_ with it? We can't come up with any ways…"

"Well, Buru would believe, for starters…"

Rockman sighed, and sat down. "What if…there's no way home?" there was no way to mistake his tone—he was about to give up.

"Now stop that, Blue Guy," Alicia snapped. "If there's one thing I'm good at, it's thinking up ways to get out of impossible scrapes. We'll just deal. If nothing else, we'll take the comp to my dad's work and get it hooked up in his network. That way, at least you'll have something to do besides stare at my beautiful face. And my dad's really smart, so I'm sure he can think of something."

She glared at him, suddenly looking determined and ferocious. "Don't you dare give up, or so help me I'll find a way in there and give you a whupping you'll never forget."

Rock stared at her for a moment.

Then on his face grew a smile.

######

There he was.

Sitting on the floor, looking, of all things, _happy._ Sickening. Disgusting.

Timeman prayed he would win.

######

"Hey, there's something behind—_look out!_" screamed Alicia, a moment too late. Rockman felt a huge blast of fire hit him square on the back, sending him flying. Panting, he got up, searching wildly for his attacker.

What he found was definitely strange. Whoever designed _this_ Navi was certainly…creative. The Navi was about a foot taller than Rockman, and the round, perfect circle of an old-fashioned alarmclock. His hands and feet were bright yellow, as well as the wildly spinning hands on his face, which looked exactly like a real clock. To complete the craziness, the Navi's outer "plastic" part that surrounded the clockface was a brilliant purple, and the eyes, which were on the face right below the '12' symbol, were a dark orange. It had only a line for a mouth.

"So you're Rockman," the Navi sneered, its voice high and squeaky. "Strange, that such a tiny creature could be so deadly. Ah, well…that's all in the _past_, isn't it?" the Navi giggled at his own joke.

"You're the one who sent me here," Rock realized. The Navi grinned.

"Beei-ngo! And here, your Operator can't help. There's no one here to save you." The evil creature opened his mouth, and another blast of purple fire shot out. Rockman managed to dodge, and began to charge his blaster.

"Hey, you leave my computer alone! And Rockman while you're at it!" snapped Alicia, panicking.

"Somehow, I think that was less than threatening," said Andy dryly, trying to think. There was no way to help Rock—there were no such things as PETs here, and without a PET Andy and Alicia couldn't send battlechips to the blue Navi. He was on his own.

The Navi laughed as Rockman stood up, glaring at his enemy.

"Rockman, you should know the name of your killer. I am _Timeman_!"

A blast of fire accompanied the Navi's name, and this time Rockman did not dodge in time. He screamed as the purple flames tore around his body, as painful as the initial blast that threw him here, as painful as—

"No! Blue Guy! Hey, I said leave him alone, dammit!" Alicia screamed, pounding on the CPU. She saw the still-open "Add and Remove Programs" window, and saw—

"Timeman.EXE! He's there! Maybe—"she tried to click the "Remove" button for Timeman, but her mouse wouldn't respond. Neither would her enter key.

"Dammit, dammit, _dammit!_" she snarled, nearly ready to pull the plug. "There's gotta be—"

Andy sat there, thinking…and then an enlightened look grew on his face. "Alicia, do you have a GBA adaptor for the computer?"

"I—well, yeah, Dad just gave me—But isn't this the wrong time?!"

"No! It's not! Go get it, _now!_"

As Alicia scrambled around her messy room looking for the cord in question, Andy jumped for his backpack and reached for his ever-ready videogame. Thank God he still had—yes!

"Hurry!" he cried over another one of Rockman's screams. The blue Navi was losing, and losing _badly_. Alicia nodded curtly and handed him the cord. She'd found it under a pile of clothing. "Quick, set it up—" Before he had finished his sentence, Alicia had the cord attached to the computer and the Gameboy. Andy turned it on, cheering as a familiar image came up.

"Yes, I want to continue—AHA! I WAS RIGHT!"

"Ow!" snapped Alicia, covering her ears. "There's enough screaming without you! What—"

Alicia gasped as she stared at the GBA's screen. Andy had plugged in his Battle Network game—the English version of Rockman.EXE—and on the screen was a blue figure battling a clock-shaped Navi.

"Let's try this," said Andy, pursing his lips and sending the Rockman on the videogame's screen a Sword battlechip. "Sword, slot in!" he called cheerfully…

…and a glowing, blue sword appeared on Rockman's right hand.

Timeman's eyes widened as a wicked smile grew on Andy's face. An equally wicked smile grew on Rock's.

"Roll, slot in!" Andy yelled, even though all he had to do was push some buttons. This way was a lot more fun. "Recover 50, slot in!"

Suddenly, Rockman seemed to become Roll. A giant heart burst down, healing him as it descended. Immediately after it touched the ground, the now feminine Navi attached ferociously with her antennae, making Timeman flinch. As Rock turned back into his normal blue self, Alicia saw that his hitpoints had increased by seventy, and his burn marks were gone.

"Perfect!" Andy cheered. "Just like I figured!"

"Figured what?" asked Alicia, bewildered.

"Well, apparently Rock's stats and battlechips are now connected to my game! That means…" Andy's smile grew even more smug. "It's time to kick some Navi butt."

Timeman's eyes grew from saucers to plates.

"N-no—"

"Gutsman ver. 2, slot in!" yelled Andy, wishing he was further in the game so he could have cooler battlechips. Ah, well, he still had some good ones—and if he played this right, the battle was his.

Rockman instantly turned into the gorilla-like Navi, using the Guts Hammer to blow Timeman to the ground.

"N-no! You won't—you won't beat me so easily!" Timeman raised his hand into the air, where a black chip appeared.

"A—A Dark Chip!" Andy gasped, and Timeman grinned as he activated it.

"Just try to beat me now," the clock said. His voice was now deeper, more masculine…and much, much more dangerous. He was also glowing slightly, and in his hands he held two black, pulsing balls of energy.

"Catch," he sneered, and threw the balls as hard as he could at Rock.

"My turn—Area St—" Andy began, but he didn't press the button soon enough. Rockman was blasted twenty feet into the air, and the world faded to black sparkled with stars as he landed. He couldn't find the strength to get up.

"I wonder if deletion hurts?" said Timeman, forming a pulsing black sword on his right hand. "I'm sure you'll find out…"

Delete File "Rockman.EXE"?

            Click 'OK' to remove file and all of its contents

            Click 'Cancel' to abort

_Click_

_Don't you just hate cliffhangers? Ah, but they're so much fun! To write, anyway…_

_Oh, yeah—and if y'all know Buru, just know I have her permission…actually, she threatened pain and destruction and no Rockman for a week if I didn't put her in, so HA! Rock is mine once again!_

_Ahem. _

_Oh, one last thing—if there's no such thing as a GBA to PC adaptor cord…well…there is now, dammit. I'm a writer! I have…uh…POETIC LICENSE! Yeah…that's it…poetic license…_

_Anyway, please review or else I'll threaten you with something drastic. _

_What's something drastic? Ummm…_

_AHA! TAKING A LONG TIME TO UPDATE! SO THERE!  Sooo…please review! begging eyes_


	4. File Deleted

**56k Connection**

**_Chapter Four: File Deleted_**

Just as Timeman plunged the sword into Rockman's chest, Andy finished 'slotting in' the Area Steal battlechip. And something rather strange happened.

Before, the two Navis had been fighting on Alicia's desktop (which looked decidedly weird) but in the battle the humans had forgotten about it. Now, however, all icons and windows disappeared to see the Net World as Rock and Timeman did, with purple ground and pale blue sky…except the ground under Rock was purple no longer. It was now blue.

"What—" began Timeman, utterly confused. For some reason, his sword wasn't slashing Rockman to tiny pixels—instead, it was hovering above his chest!

"Well, that was…unexpected…" said Andy slowly. Apparently Area Steal had literally stolen some ground for Rock, giving him just enough time to recover.

"Oh, give-me-that!" snapped Alicia as everyone seemed to stand there shock-still. "Honestly, you guys seem to forget Rock's fighting for his life here!" She quickly pressed the 'A' button, loading a couple of Cannons onto the battlefield. They instantly aimed and shot at Timeman, blowing him backwards, further away from Rock. "Geez. Boys."

Her interruption seemed to wake everyone up. "Alicia!" gasped Andy as she loaded another Cannon chip into the game. "I thought you couldn't play!"

"I can't," she answered, pursing her lips. "I'm figuring out as I go. I've been watching _you_ long enough. Hey, how come I can't give him that Minibomb battlechip with this Shotgun battlechip? Just because they have different letters…"

"WATCH OUT!" screamed Andy just as Timeman threw another black ball at Rock. This time the blue Navi was able to dodge it, making Andy sigh in relief. "Thank goodness…"

Alicia shrugged and loaded the Minibomb battlechip into Rock. "That one looks to do more damage," she said as a small bomb appeared in Rockman's hand. He instantly chucked it at Timeman, only to have it met head on with another energy ball. The two blew into pieces, sending both Navis flying backward.

"Oh, crap, I didn't mean to do that. Sorry, Rock."

"DIE, DAMMIT!" the clock-shaped Navi screamed, ignoring Alicia. He put his hands together, creating another pulsing black energy ball between them. Alicia uploaded the Shotgun battlechip and another Minibomb, but when Rock used them nothing seemed to happen. It was as though they hadn't hit him at all. Andy stared in horror as he saw the ground beneath Timeman had turned black. He was using his own version of Area Steal!

"Aw, crap! It looks like all we have are health chips!" Alicia cried.

"Throw 'em!" Andy yelled, grabbing the GBA and doing so. Andy just prayed the new chips would show up in time—

"C'mon, c'mon, hurry up! Hurry!"

Timeman's energy ball was now nearly the size of himself. Rockman paled as he looked at it…there was no way to escape that…!

Finally, finally, new chips showed up on the screen. Andy groaned as he saw them—more health chips again, and one Long Sword. That sword wasn't going to come in handy at all—it wouldn't do enough damage!

But Alicia's eyes lit up as a new idea came into her head. She looked at the battlechips at the screen, and grinned wickedly.

"Rock, have you ever played baseball?" she asked nonchalantly as she grabbed the GBA back and uploaded the Long Sword. Rockman's eyes widened as he realized what she was getting at.

Andy just stared at her. She wasn't seriously—

_"TIME BOMB!!"_ screamed Timeman, chucking the massive thing at Rock.

"And a-one…a-two…NOW! SWING, ROCK!"

Rock swung the sword.

The bomb bounced back.

Timeman had two seconds to scream before he was blown up in his own attack.

Alicia pretended to blow smoke off the GBA as she watched the Navi dissipate.

"And _that_, my friend, is why you don't get the Zelda Master on your ass. I'm _good_ at hitting dark balls of energy back with swords."

Andy stared at her, grinning. "All right!"

Rockman smiled too…just before he fainted. The battle had damaged him more than the kids had realized.

Before their eyes, another strange something had appeared. And considering all that had happened, it had to be pretty damn strange.

Where Timeman had stood—and died—a large, spinning black portal was forming. Rock's unconscious form was being dragged to it, slowly but surely—

"Rock! Rockman, _WAKE UP_!" Andy screamed. "You're about to be sucked up by who knows what!"

"Get up, you ass!" Alicia growled, this time thumping the monitor. "We did _not_ just go through all that work to let you die on us!"

Rock groaned, finally waking up. When he saw the portal, he instantly drew back.

"It's—it's really strong!" he gasped as he slid forward, even though he was crawling backwards as fast as he could. "I—I don't think I can keep myself out of it!"

"Rockman?" asked a familiar voice from the other side. It sounded like…

"Netto-kun!" Rock gasped, staring into the portal. Andy's eyes widened.

"Hey! Do you think that's a way back to your time?"

"Probably!" Alicia grinned, and waved at the Navi. "Crappy fanfics have quick endings like that." She missed Andy's glare, still focused on the computer screen. "Safe journey, Blue Guy. Hopefully you two Navis didn't destroy my computer."

Rock was nearly at the edge of the portal. "I'm sure we didn't," he said, and stared inside. "Yes, I definitely see Netto-kun!"

"Rockman?" asked the boy's voice. "Hey, where are you?"

"I'm here!" Rock answered automatically. He then turned to the two humans. "Thank you!" he called, waving. Alicia and Andy waved back.

"No prob," said Alicia. "Don't kill yourself back there, or I _will_ come after you."

Rock grinned. "I'll try not to. You're dangerous when you're mad."

"Got that right, shorty." Soft smile. "See ya."

Andy grinned and waved enthusiastically, lifting up the GBA. "See you soon!" he called mischievously. Rockman managed to wave one last time before the portal sucked him in.

######

"Rockman, where were you?" snapped Netto as he got ready. "You didn't wake me up!"

"Er, sorry, Netto-kun," said Rock, sweatdropping. "It's a long story…"

"Long story?"

"Yes…" Rockman thought for a moment about everything that happened. Had it all been a dream…?

"Well, tell me about it!" said Netto, settling down in front of the PET's charger, bandana and socks forgotten. "It's just school anyway. Who cares?"

"_Netto-kun!"_

Yep. Things were back to normal.

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